Shock absorbing equalizers for trailer suspension systems are known in the art. Such equalizers typically include two rigid members configured to pivot with respect to each other and a resilient member that is compressible and decompressible between the two rigid members. For example, such equalizers may include a rigid pivot arm disposed within and configured to pivot with respect to a rigid body. A rubber shock absorber may be disposed between the pivot arm and the body. Although such equalizers are effective, they may place considerable radial loads upon the pivot joint between the pivot arm and the housing.
An improvement to such equalizers, disclosed in commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/608,651, filed on May 30, 2017, and published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2017/0349019 A1 (“the '019 publication”), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, includes a second shock absorber between the pivot arm and the housing, on the opposite side of the pivot arm from the first shock absorber. Although such equalizers may place lesser radial loads upon the pivot joint between the pivot arm and the housing, they tend to be taller than equalizers having only a first shock absorber between the pivot arm and the housing. This may limit the number and variety of applications in which such equalizers can be used based on packaging limitations.
The present disclosure is directed to further improvements to such equalizers.